How do you even figure out what they're reading? - Edit 1
Before modification by Vivien at 12/09/2011 05:45:31 AM
If they're reading the book is open so the cover isn't visible. It just seems to be rude to go out of your way to find out information about a stranger. It's probably because when I'm in this situation it's on a NYC subway and just striking up conversation with a stranger in the middle of your commute is kind of weird. Well, I have made small talk if the situation calls for it but I wouldn't interrupt someone reading.
Ok there was one time I was sitting down in a subway car that's only half full (most seats were taken, but almost no one was standing) and I noticed that a man was reading a really fat paperback. I found myself thinking, wow, that's a big book, that looks like it could be a wheel of time paperback. Then I got a glimpse of the cover/binding, and it was! [I didn't say anything]
Ok there was one time I was sitting down in a subway car that's only half full (most seats were taken, but almost no one was standing) and I noticed that a man was reading a really fat paperback. I found myself thinking, wow, that's a big book, that looks like it could be a wheel of time paperback. Then I got a glimpse of the cover/binding, and it was! [I didn't say anything]
or is it just weird?
i was on holiday and saw a guy reading well worn copies of shadows rising and then fires of heaven, so obviously a fan of wheel of time that i could probably have made a passing "oh i like that book too" but i didn't because in the back of my head i was thinking that he would think, what a weirdo
now if it was the other way around i'd probably embrace it, i come on a book forum i enjoy discussing the finer details of fantasy epic, but would he be of a similar disposition? it wasn't worth the risk of him forcing a smile, humouring me with small talk and then dismissing me with a slight air of embarrassment and then enduring a week of passing each other around the pool and doing that raised eyebrow nod of acknowledgment to each other
and yet and yet
so what's your opinion? ever made an obvious attempt at conversation with a person you see reading something you've read? and this isn't like when you're both in a book shop or a similar established ground for literary discourse. this is where you've crossed the expanse of a park or made for someone where they've noticed your approach and regarded you with wary anxiety as you've out of nowhere made an uninvited beeline for their reading solitude. were you stone walled or did you make a new friend? or do you have a more subtle tactic of perhaps edging closer, leaning over and being like...don't you just hate <insert character name> too?
similarly have you ever been received such attentions, how was the experience?
oh and if you're recently back from oludeniz in turkey, stayed at the belcahan hotel and read robert jordan i'm talking about you, i was reading robin hobb
on a tangent, the farseer and liveship trilogies still might be my favourite six fantasy books of all time. i reread them after maybe 6 or 8 years and i did think that my favourable memory of them may have been tinged by nostalgia, but they really weren't they truly are a great piece of work
i was on holiday and saw a guy reading well worn copies of shadows rising and then fires of heaven, so obviously a fan of wheel of time that i could probably have made a passing "oh i like that book too" but i didn't because in the back of my head i was thinking that he would think, what a weirdo
now if it was the other way around i'd probably embrace it, i come on a book forum i enjoy discussing the finer details of fantasy epic, but would he be of a similar disposition? it wasn't worth the risk of him forcing a smile, humouring me with small talk and then dismissing me with a slight air of embarrassment and then enduring a week of passing each other around the pool and doing that raised eyebrow nod of acknowledgment to each other
and yet and yet
so what's your opinion? ever made an obvious attempt at conversation with a person you see reading something you've read? and this isn't like when you're both in a book shop or a similar established ground for literary discourse. this is where you've crossed the expanse of a park or made for someone where they've noticed your approach and regarded you with wary anxiety as you've out of nowhere made an uninvited beeline for their reading solitude. were you stone walled or did you make a new friend? or do you have a more subtle tactic of perhaps edging closer, leaning over and being like...don't you just hate <insert character name> too?
similarly have you ever been received such attentions, how was the experience?
oh and if you're recently back from oludeniz in turkey, stayed at the belcahan hotel and read robert jordan i'm talking about you, i was reading robin hobb
on a tangent, the farseer and liveship trilogies still might be my favourite six fantasy books of all time. i reread them after maybe 6 or 8 years and i did think that my favourable memory of them may have been tinged by nostalgia, but they really weren't they truly are a great piece of work